Dr. Nicolas Carreño gives talk at CRE

Short Summary:

The construction sector is responsible for about 35% of the total waste generation in the EU and more than a 10% of global GHG emissions. This fact has risen the pressure on the construction industry considerably, setting ambitious goals to reduce the environmental impact throughout all construction sectors. This includes road construction as well, where a high use of non-renewable resources and an energy-intensive process is required every time a road section is built and/or renewed. However, in the case of flexible pavements, there are many possibilities to reduce the environmental impact. The first part of presentation will be focused on one of them. How innovative materials can be helpful in reducing the environmental impact of asphalt mixtures will be explained. In the second part of presentation, the current challenges on sustainability evaluation of road materials and projects will be presented.   

Short Biography:

After studying Civil Engineering at the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Dr. Nicolas Carreño worked shortly as a Planning Engineer in a Sanitary Engineering company in Valparaíso, Chile. In 2016, he came to Germany as a doctoral candidate and in 2017 started working as a research engineer in the Institute of Highway Engineering of the RWTH Aachen University. During this period, his research field was twofold, bitumen and asphalt modification and testing,  and alternative/additional uses of pavement structures and surfaces. During the last year of his doctoral studies, he started focusing on the sustainability of road infrastructure materials and projects, which led to his next step after finishing his doctoral studies in September 2022. Dr. Nicolas Carreño now work as Sustainability Manager for Vinci Construction (Eurovia) focusing primarily on the sustainability assessment on road materials.